1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spinning reel having a rotor rotatably supported by a reel body, and a bail attached to the rotor to be switchable between a line releasing position and a line winding position, the rotor including a control device for switching the bail from the winding position to the releasing position.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a spinning reel of the type noted above, the control device is operable to switch the bail to the line releasing position (i.e. to pick up the bail) forcibly. In order to prevent a fishing line from being inadvertently unreeled from a spool as a result of this switching operation, the user must take a series of steps to hold the line with his or her finger and to operate the switching control device. Then, normally, the user takes a bait casting step while releasing the line from the finger.
If the rotor should rotate inadvertently in the course of action from the operation of the control device to the bait casting, inconveniences would occur, such as the line being unreeled from the spool before the user releases the line, or unreeling of the line being prevented by action of a mechanism which automatically switches the bail from the line releasing position to the line winding position in response to rotation of the rotor. It is therefore necessary to assure that the rotor is stopped during the above operation. However, the rotor cannot be stopped reliably during the series of steps taken as above, only by the finger operating the control device. There is room for improvement in this respect.
A known spinning reel having a rotation stopping mechanism operable with opening and closing of the bail to stop rotation of the rotor is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-19479, for example. In this known spinning reel, the rotation stopping mechanism is automatically operable simply by opening or closing the bail. However, no control device is provided which is operable in a single movement of a free finger of the hand holding the reel and rod. The line must be held with a free finger of the hand holding the reel and rod while picking up the bail with the other hand: The series of steps up to bait casting cannot be conducted smoothly.